This Agreement defines the framework conditions for voluntary assistance in the event of a disaster or serious accident in the other Contracting State, upon request of the other Contracting State, in particular for the commitment of teams and equipment.

In accordance with this Agreement, expressions shall mean:

(1) The competent authorities to request assistance and to receive requests for assistance are:

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On the side of the Swiss Confederation: the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and, in the border region, the governments of the cantons;

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On the side of the Federal Republic of Germany: The Federal Minister of the Interior and, in the border region, the Ministers of the Interior of the neighbouring Länder or the "Regierungspräsidenten" authorised by them.

(2) The authorities referred to in para. 1 may designate subordinate authorities entitled to request and receive requests to assist.

(3) The authorities of the two Contracting States referred to in paras. 1 and 2 may communicate directly with each other for the purposes of this Agreement.

(4) The two Contracting States shall communicate by diplomatic means the addresses and telephone and telex numbers of the authorities referred to in paras. 1 and 2.

The nature and extent of the aid shall be fixed, in the case in case, by mutual agreement between the authorities referred to in Art. 3.

(1) Assistance shall be provided by sending to the scene of the disaster or of the serious accident of rescue teams which have received special training, in particular in the areas of firefighting, the fight against nuclear risks and Chemical, first aid, rescue and research or interim repair and who have the equipment and equipment necessary for their tasks; if necessary, the assistance may be provided by any other means.

(2) Relief teams may be sent by land, air or water.

(1) Members of a rescue team shall be exempt from the requirement of the passport and residence permit. A certificate attesting to its position may only be requested from the head of the rescue team.

(2) If the emergency so requires, the boundary may also be crossed outside the authorized crossing points and without observance of the requirements relating thereto. In this case, the competent authorities for border surveillance or the nearest border post must be informed immediately.

(3) Facilities for crossing the border according to paras. 1 and 2 are also applicable to evacuees during a disaster or a serious accident.

(1) The Contracting States shall facilitate the crossing of the border of the equipment necessary for the aid and of the means of relief. No import or export documentation is required. The head of a rescue team shall only present to the border control bodies of the requesting State, at the crossing of the border, a comprehensive list of the equipment and the means of relief provided.

(2) Relief teams shall not provide goods other than the necessary equipment and means of relief for relief operations.

(3) The import of equipment and emergency means outside the authorised border crossing points shall be brought to the attention of the competent customs office at the first opportunity.

(4) The prohibitions and restrictions on the traffic of goods across the border shall not apply to the equipment and emergency means necessary for relief operations. The equipment and backup assets not used during a rescue operation must be re-exported. Where special circumstances make it impossible to re-export, the nature and quantity as well as the situation of such equipment and emergency means shall be announced to the authority responsible for the operation, who shall inform the Competent customs office. In that case, the national law of the requesting State shall apply.

(5) The provisions of para. 4 shall also apply, in the context of this Agreement, to the importation into the Requesting State of narcotic drugs and to re-export in the sending State of the quantities not used. This trade in goods is not considered to be imported or exported within the meaning of the international agreements on narcotic drugs. Narcotics must be made only in the context of urgent medical needs and used only by qualified medical personnel according to the legal standards of the Contracting State in which the rescue team originates.

(1) Aircraft may be used not only for the rapid transport of relief crews according to Art. 5, para. 2, but also directly for other types of rescue operations.

(2) Each Contracting State shall authorise aircraft engaged from the territory of the other Contracting State in accordance with para. 1, to fly over its own territory and to land and take off even outside of authorized or customs aerodromes.

(3) The intention to use aircraft during a rescue operation shall be communicated immediately to the applicant authority with an indication, as clearly as possible, of the type and registration of the aircraft, flight crew, Loading, take-off time, expected road and landing site.

(4) The following shall apply:

(a)

Art. 6 to flight crews and rescue teams on board;

(b)

Art. 7 to aircraft and other equipment and emergency means on board.

(5) Apart from the provisions of para. 2, the regulation of the air traffic of each Contracting State shall remain applicable, in particular as regards the obligation to communicate information on flights to the competent authorities.

(1) The coordination and overall direction of rescue and rescue operations shall in all cases belong to the authorities of the requesting State.

(2) The authorities of the requesting State referred to in Art. 3 specifies, at the time of the formulation of a request for relief, the tasks which they intend to entrust to the rescue teams of the sending State, without entering into the details of their execution.

(3) Any direction to the relief teams of the sending State shall be provided to the chiefs of the said teams, who shall give the instructions for execution to the elements which are subordinate to them.

(4) The authorities of the requesting State shall grant protection and assistance to the emergency teams of the sending State.

(1) The requested authority of the sending State shall bear the costs of a relief operation, including expenditure arising from the use, deterioration or loss of the equipment. Expenses for interventions by third parties for which the sending State has simply been interwoven are excluded.

(2) In the event of full or partial recovery of the costs of the intervention completed, the provisions of para. 1, first sentence, does not apply. The requested authority of the sending State shall be compensated in priority.

(3) During the duration of a relief operation in the territory of the requesting State, the emergency teams of the sending State shall be supplied, hosted and provided with means of supply at the expense of the requesting authority, to the extent that The means were consumed. If necessary, they obtain logistical assistance, including medical assistance.

(1) Each Contracting State, including its own territorial authorities, shall refrain from making any claim for compensation to the other Contracting State:

(a)

In the event of a decrease in the value of the property, if the damage was caused by a rescuer of the other Contracting State in the performance of its task;

(b)

In the event of injury to the health or death of a first aid worker in relation to the performance of his or her task.

(2) If, in the territory of the Requesting State, damage is caused to a third party by a rescuer of the State requested in the performance of its task, the requesting State shall respond to the reparation of the damage in accordance with the provisions applicable to the case where That damage would have been caused by his own rescuers.

(3) The authorities of the Contracting States shall cooperate closely in order to facilitate the settlement of claims for compensation. In particular, they shall exchange any information available concerning events causing damage within the meaning of this Article.

(1) Persons who, in the event of a disaster or a serious accident, as rescuers or evacuees, have passed from one Contracting State to another, shall be assisted in accordance with the provisions of the right of internal assistance up to the first opportunity Back. The State of departure shall pay the costs incurred for the assistance and repatriation of such persons, unless they are nationals of the other Contracting State.

(2) Each Contracting State shall readmit persons who, as first aid or evacuated, have arrived from its territory on that of the other Contracting State. In so far as they are persons who are not nationals of the contracting State, they remain subject to the same status as before the border crossing.

(1) The authorities referred to in s. 3 cooperate within the limits of national law and may enter into special arrangements, in particular on:

(a)

The execution of relief operations,

(b)

The prevention and control of disasters and serious accidents, by exchanging all relevant scientific-technical information and by providing for meetings, research programmes, technical courses and exercises Relief operations in the territory of both Contracting States;

(c)

The exchange of information on the risks and damage liable to affect the territory of the other Contracting State; mutual information also includes the preventive exchange of data to measure

(2) The provisions of this Agreement shall apply mutatis mutandis to joint exercises in which relief teams of one Contracting State are engaged in the territory of the other.

(1) The possibilities for the use of cross-border radio links between the authorities referred to in Article 3 between these authorities and the rescue teams sent by or between the teams themselves shall be examined in common, In general, by the telecommunications administrations of the two Contracting States and fixed in internal directives.

(2) Telecommunications authorities under para. 1 are:

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For the Swiss Confederation: the Directorate General for the Enterprise of PTT;

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For the Federal Republic of Germany: the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications.

(3) The frequencies of the radio links shall be fixed in special arrangements and within the limits of the directives issued by the competent telecommunications administrations.

(1) Disputes over the interpretation and application of this Agreement that cannot be resolved by the authorities referred to in s. 3 are dealt with through diplomatic channels.

(2) If a dispute over the interpretation or application of this Agreement cannot be settled by diplomatic means, it shall be submitted to a arbitral tribunal at the request of a Contracting State.

(3) The arbitral tribunal shall be composed of cases in the case of each Contracting State appointing a member and the two members designating by common accord the national of a third State as president, who shall be appointed by the governments of the States Contractors. The members shall be appointed within two months, the President within three months, after one of the Contracting States has communicated to the other that he intends to submit the dispute to a arbitral tribunal.

(4) If the time limits set out in para. 3 are not complied with, and in the absence of any other arrangement, each Contracting State may invite the President of the European Court of Human Rights to make the required designations. If the President has Swiss or German nationality, or is prevented for another reason, the Vice-President shall proceed to the appointment. If the Vice-President also has Swiss or German nationality, or is also prevented from doing so, the member immediately below the hierarchy of the court with neither Swiss nationality nor German nationality shall Designation.

(5) The arbitral tribunal shall take its decisions by a majority of the votes on the basis of the existing treaties between the Contracting States, the general principles of the law recognized in those States and the public international law. Its decisions are binding. Each Contracting State shall bear the costs of the arbitrator appointed and the costs incurred for its representation in the proceedings before the arbitral tribunal; the costs of the third party arbitrator and the other costs shall be borne equally by the States Contractors. The arbitral tribunal itself shall settle its proceedings.

(6) If the arbitral tribunal so requests, the courts of both Contracting States shall grant it mutual legal assistance in order to carry out the quotations and hearings of witnesses and experts, in accordance with the agreements in force between the two States Mutual legal assistance in civil and commercial matters.

This Agreement may be terminated at any time; it shall expire six months after the denunciation.

The conventional rules existing between the Contracting States shall remain unchanged.

This Agreement shall also apply to the Land of Berlin, with the exception of the provisions on air traffic, if the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany does not give the Swiss Federal Council a contrary statement in the three Months following the entry into force of the Agreement.

(1) This Agreement shall be subject to ratification. The instruments of ratification shall be exchanged as soon as possible in Bonn.

(2) This Agreement shall enter into force on the first day of the second month after the exchange of instruments of ratification.

Done at Berne, 28 November 1984, in duplicate in the German language.